Lenox — Restaurant in Seattle

It all looked so pretty! Unfortunately, the soul of the dishes was missing. For a "fancy" place, the servers made no attempt to present the dish before serving. Reads fancy but the experience is more run-of-the-mill, you eat and you leave. It is a place to eat, not an experience.

I really wanted to be impressed as a proponent of all things Puerto Rican. Instead, our experience at Lenox was a bit of an uneven event.

No sofrito was hurt in the creation of these dishes. Also, based on the dish photos in previous reviews, it looks as if we were in a different restaurant.

There's really no attempt to create a jovial atmosphere. The choice of music was odd, loud, and nary a visual cue to signal what the restaurant is about. The chairs were not the most comfortable. It felt like a kids' bouncy chair at times. Our service was both rushed and slow. The waiter rushed to fragmentally inquired about our food with barely an attempt at conversation. The rhythm of the meal was slow, with unusually long gaps between offerings. Now for the food. The mofongo, tostones, and maduros were a hit! The sauces for some of the side dishes, delicious. Thank goodness as the rest of the options were not as delightful as we expected. The ceviche was mild, and the proportion of ingredients were off, with the fish barely making an appearance. It was served at room temperature, the least preferred option anywhere. The steak was perfectly cooked, which is not to say that it was delicious as nothing really stood out from the rest of the components. The lechon option brought me to the South, with black beans and collard greens(?). An option more at home at June Baby than a PR restaurant. Once again, the flavor was lacking in all the components. The lechon was an Italian porchetta instead. The desserts, a "guava" cheesecake and a tres leches, did not meet expectations as well. The guava was but two swirls inside the cheesecake and a barely there, guava flavor in the sauce. The mango sorbet saved the day. The coconut lime tres leches cake was 4/5 cream of the dish, and neither the tasted of lime nor coconut came through in the dessert.

I'd tell friends to run to try the mofongo. It is really the only dish that reads and tastes like Puerto Rico or Aflo Latin. Sadness... Let's inject some love into those recipes!

P.S. No soft drinks are served in this establishment. A Puerto Rican malta (non-alcoholic mal beverage is more of an after-meal choice for a drink. P.P.S. If you're under 21, try another...

Food tastes good but this restaurant should not be marketed as Cuban/Puertorrican if the authentic dishes being served are not even close to the real deal. I definitely think if you’ve never been to Puerto Rico and have no expectations on what the cuisine is like, this food would be pretty good. However, if you’re like me and have been feeling a bit homesick, this place will NOT satisfy your palate. I think it would be unkind of me to discuss ALL the ways the different plates showcased in the current menu got it wrong but I do think there are three very major things regarding the flavor/ingredients used that feel very important when marketing this as boricua. The mofongo used ripe plantains instead of the traditional green plantain. The criollo sauce for the shrimp was also deeply missing the sofritoness. The rice and beans are charged separately (back home this is a two in one deal, no questions asked. sometimes you even have to ask for no beans because it’s automatically assumed you will eat them together) and the beans lacked its classic taste. The mayoketchup had fruit notes in its flavor profile (?) when all it should contain is mayonnaise, ketchup, and garlic. if you want to go crazy with it, blend the garlic to a paste in a food processor with cilantro and oregano.

Besides these things, we were told the plates were sharing size and that was painfully incorrect. Regarding atmosphere, the environment also lacked the carribean feel. Instead of playing soft rock in english let’s integrate una salsita o una bachatita. acho ponte bad bunny!!

This restaurant felt like the equivalent of a gringo opening a puertorrican fusion restaurant in Rincon and trying to pull it off as authentic. (Alexa, play lo que paso en hawaii).

I will say one very positive thing, our discontent definitely didnt go unnoticed and we got two free desserts from it. The flan and the tres leches.

I definitely think it will be important for this restaurant to sit with their menu and assess if their current recipes truly reflect the flavor profile of carribean food. I strongly encourage getting feedback from people that have specially grown up in the region.

I truly do hope the notes made in this review are taken seriously to improve and better rePResent us...

Not authentic puertorrican food, this food is great for someone who has never been to Puerto Rico.

Mofongo is made with green plaintains, not ripe plaintains. It's not supposed to be sweet. The alcapurrias tasted like nothing...you're supposed to season the beef with sofrito, adobo and tomato paste and also season the alcapurria mix.

The "lechon" is actually pork belly seasoned with nothing but salt in it. Dry, fried and not juicy at all. Our lechon plate took over an hour to arrive and I think someone went out and bought the pork when we were there. We went there close to closing time.

The arroz con gandules taste like boxed mexican rice, unseasoned.

Please ask the chef/cooks to check on youtube how to make arroz con gandules, you're supposed use sazon, sofrito, oregano, cilantro paste and oil. You mix the gandules first with all your spices for 10mins then add the rice mix it even more for 5 mins, then add the water. I just gave you my mom's recipe.

The lack of flavor on the rice is an insult to the recipe. Your patrons will love you more if you cook it right. You're welcome!

They had also ran out of chicken.

If you are dominican or puertorrican this food just won't make the cut, stay home and cook your own caribbean meal.

They did not charge us for the lechon because it took too long. The whole experience bummed me out because I wanted to show my friend some authentic food...